Editorial: Free college in the future

Imagine a world where free college exists. It might be hard, because according to projectonstudentdebt.org, 69 percent of graduating University of Toledo students leave with debt. But, free college might be possible in the future with President Barack Obama’s proposed America’s College Promise.

The proposal would make the first two years of community college free. This would either let people finish the first two years of a bachelor’s degree or complete an associate’s degree. They could attend community college full-time or part-time. There is a catch though: students would have to keep a 2.5 GPA.

We think this is a great plan if it all works out, especially for people who wouldn’t be able to afford college on their own, or couldn’t afford all four years at a university for a bachelor’s degree. It would allow them to get a full-fledged associate’s degree which would help when applying for higher-paying jobs. It would also help people get credits and improve their GPA enough to get scholarships at other universities they could transfer to.

The America’s College Promise proposal would alleviate the financial strain on students. For students, two years of free college could mean 60 transferable credits, 100 percent paid for. To obtain 60 credits alone with no scholarships at UT would cost $20,129. Now what’s better, something being free or costing $20,000?

It could also theoretically help universities as well. If you look at the course catalogue at prerequisite classes like college composition, there are upwards of 100 different classes being taught. Now imagine students going to community college for two years. That means there will be fewer people who need to take those introductory classes at UT. The professors then have the ability to spend their time working on upper-level courses that require more work.

Students taking prerequisite classes in community colleges would also mean there would be a baseline level of knowledge for professors to expect from new students. Currently it seems like there is a big division in first-year students; some of them are very prepared for college and others have trouble. Some students are behind because they weren’t taught things in high school or they were taught different information on how to do things. This is a problem for professors who have to accommodate for their students’ academic level. They have to teach the students who are behind as well as keep the more advanced students interested. With the proposal, students would take courses in community college where they would learn preliminary information. When they get to UT they would hopefully know what is expected in the class.

The plan could also help with UT’s graduation rate. There is a large disparity in the amount of incoming freshmen and graduating seniors. According to Forbes.com’s list of America’s best colleges, only 23 percent of students graduate from UT. This is because UT is a rolling admission school that accepts most of the people who apply. Those who aren’t prepared often drop out before they can graduate. But with the proposal, students would come to UT after they are prepared for upper-level courses. That means more of the people who apply and enroll will actually graduate from UT. Therefore there won’t be such a large gap between incoming students and outgoing graduates.

The main concern for us is how the problem is going to be funded. The program will cost around $60 billion — that is a lot of money — and how does the government get money? Through taxes paid by all of us.

From the Jan. 9 press release from the Office of the Press Secretary at the White House, the $60 billion proposal would be funded three-quarters by the government and one quarter by the states. The key wording in the press release is that a quarter will be paid for by “states that choose to participate.” This means that this program would be optional for states. And optional usually means that states won’t go for it. Plus with the Republican Congress, this proposal will be hard to have passed because conservatives are usually against government spending.

But we truly believe this plan will be good for students as well as the university. It will allow those who can’t afford college an opportunity to go as well as a baseline level of education for incoming students. What do you think? Email a letter to the editor at [email protected] to give a voice to what you believe. We might even publish your letter next week.